NU Stats - January 2013

Moderator

The only problem that I speak for within the upcoming usage statistics is Sawsbuck's 41% of usage..... what? Why? This statistic is honestly an absolute disgrace to the NU showdown community. Sawsbuck is easily one of the best setup sweepers right now, and definitely should place a defining role for offense teams alike. Also, it benefits from Gurdurr's rather short stint into the tier as of now; Gurdurr honestly isn't all that great in the metagame now, with Psychic-types (and other good checks to it) present their addition to every team nowadays.

Other that that disappointment, everything else is looking spot, especially on compared to the past, and the top listings (especially the top 10) definitely showcases a good representation of their impact in the current metagame.

It's debatable. Mold Breaker is obviously far and away the best ability for KOing Stealth Rock leads, so it's going to be used a lot with pokemon like Articuno. If you don't have an issue with Rocks (most NU players have adapted to building teams not weak to them) it's only other notable use is Misdreavus; I mean Weezing kinda sucks and is pretty uncommon. Considering Sturdy lets you fire off an extra free CB Close Combat at anything, it definitely has its niche. Sawk with Sturdy intact can take down stuff like Rotom-S in two hits while it fails to OHKO with Air Slash.

| 79 | Rotom-Frost | 2.44271% | 2650 | 2.075% | 2234 | 2.140% |
Rotom-Frost should be higher. It's got a good typing that gives it nice resistances, and has great coverage only with its STAB. Still, I understand that Blizzard miss is frustrating...

It's debatable. Mold Breaker is obviously far and away the best ability for KOing Stealth Rock leads, so it's going to be used a lot with pokemon like Articuno. If you don't have an issue with Rocks (most NU players have adapted to building teams not weak to them) it's only other notable use is Misdreavus; I mean Weezing kinda sucks and is pretty uncommon. Considering Sturdy lets you fire off an extra free CB Close Combat at anything, it definitely has its niche. Sawk with Sturdy intact can take down stuff like Rotom-S in two hits while it fails to OHKO with Air Slash.

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It makes also Haunter, Eeleektross, Rotom-F weak to Earthquake. And as it usually has CB o CS, that's useful when you have to spam a move.

Kanghaskhan at #40 only? I mean sure, it's not the BEST Normal type in NU, but it does have Scrappy to hit Ghost Types with niche Fake Out. STAB Return as well as Sucker Punch and either Low Kick or Drain Punch is good. Should at least be around 35.

Kanghaskhan at #40 only? I mean sure, it's not the BEST Normal type in NU, but it does have Scrappy to hit Ghost Types with niche Fake Out. STAB Return as well as Sucker Punch and either Low Kick or Drain Punch is good. Should at least be around 35.

EDIT: Yes Zangoose is better, but work with me here.

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Same about Tauros...

Also, looking forward to dropdowns from RU ^_^ Hariyama, Scolipede would probably be fun to use here if they drop :) There's also Munchlax close to drop, but I personally doubt that he would be good, even here :|

I think Sawk with Sturdy is mostly to mess with people who think it has Mold Breaker. Also Mold Breaker could be countered with Focus Sash and thus making the SR leads to use it instead of another item due to the fear of a Sawk with Mold Breaker.

people won't think its mold breaker because it has a message every time sawk is sent out. sturdy is still useful with spin support or some way to prevent stealth rocks grom being set up so you can get two hits off, which usually equals two ohkoes against offensive teams.

also for those of you saying that wartortle is setup bait—try setting up on something that carries haze, seismic toss, and scald? honestly foresight is not needed, and you should be using rapid spin with those three moves with a defensive spread, which gives wartortle surprisingly high bulk.

The main issue with Wartortle is its survivability. The neutrality to Rock doesn't give it the edge over the other two spinners if it can't get rid of that damage. Pairing a Wish user to support Wartortle is also not just impractical, but is much harder than it looks. As a user of Roselia and Frillish, I've great difficulty trying to keep them alive for the match, and these two unlike Wartortle do have ways of recovering their health.

In other words, if a pokemon has to rely on Eviolite to compensate for its bulk, it would have to give up leftovers. These unevolved pokemon had better have acceptable bulk to begin with and enough offensive presence to grant them staying power (and thus less susceptibility to hazards) in order to get the job done. This is why Gurdurr, Misdreavus and Piloswine enjoy much usage and respect whereas Roselia, Frillish and of course Wartortle struggle to do well in their respective roles. (I'd say Metang is somewhere in between, if only because his fantastic resistances are offset by his mediocre HP, unlike Pilo, and lack of recovery)

also for those of you saying that wartortle is setup bait—try setting up on something that carries haze, seismic toss, and scald?

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I remember stating that Roselia gives no shits about what Wartortle does, which kind of baffles me how Wartortle usage is above Roselia's. Let's not forget the fact that Wartortle is tremendously susceptible to status, which can easily affect how well he performs. Substitute users in general can still have their way with Wartortle by dancing around status/Scald with Sub and attack/boost when a Seismic Toss is coming. This is especially true for those with super effective moves and/or recovery. The fact that Wartortle has those moves can lure an inexperienced player to try and fend off the opposing threat when they shouldn't. Wartortle can fight back against some threats, but still doesn't do well against most, hence why it "sucks" (I'd use the term inadequate).

One more thing: no matter what moveset Wartortle runs, it will always be setup bait for to many things. No Toxic? Attackers/Boosters with almost any form of recovery will beat you hard. No Seismic Toss? Have fun with Substituters. No Haze? I shouldn't explain this to anyone about what will happen, whereas no Scald leaves you helpless before any Ghost type (and even then, Scald doesn't beat Golurk without burns, not to mention the rare Frillish). Rapid Spin are on 98.174% of all Wartortles. I don't want to know what the remaining 1.826% were smoking.

Oh man, if Hariyama drops I might actually start playing NU more than RU again! Hariyama has such an awesome niche that sets him above other fighting types in RU, hariyama in NU would fit right in; not broken in NU, but has a nice niche and I predict would end up A rank.

Also the first time I saw hariyama was on a low resolution screen on colosseum, where I was about 5 or 6. I read it as hairymama. So going up to your friends and saying "have you been using your hairy mama much?" is really not ideal... :D

Oh man, if Hariyama drops I might actually start playing NU more than RU again! Hariyama has such an awesome niche that sets him above other fighting types in RU, hariyama in NU would fit right in; not broken in NU, but has a nice niche and I predict would end up A rank.

Also the first time I saw hariyama was on a low resolution screen on colosseum, where I was about 5 or 6. I read it as hairymama. So going up to your friends and saying "have you been using your hairy mama much?" is really not ideal... :D

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If said niche set him above the ru fighting types (which is not the case), it would not be at risk for dropping to nu, where even then, guts boosted hariyama is weaker than band sawk.

SD moxie pinsir is really scary i find it really easy to get a moxie ball rolling it outpaces most of NU's walls and tanks and using lum to prevent prankster t-wave/swagger dickery from liepard proceed to steamroll the only thing that would make it better if it had stab on close combat or earthquake.

I have to agree with you there. Both FLCL and I have found out how much Sawsbuck threatens many defensive cores and is generally very user-friendly, what with recovery in an attack alongside its recoil move unlike Rapidash and easily evades Sucker Punches with Nature Power. Definitely a threat to watch out for.

Problem with Sawsbuck is that it can't defeat many of the physical walls in NU. Even Regirock is troublesome if it carries Drain Punch, and Gurdurr is a full stop. Another problem, Swellow and Jumpluff also stop Sawsbuck though they can't switch in on Double-Edge. If Sawsbuck runs Adamant to pack the power it wants to have, a variety of things is suddenly outspeeding it, and even worse, those all have, without exception, powerful super-effective attacks to stomp Sawsbuck hard. Sawk is by far the most common, but Zangoose, Pikachu, and Leavanny are in the same boat.

Super Moderator

On the Mold Breaker v. Sturdy Sawk issue:
It has sort of been said already, but imo Sturdy is better for Scarf sets while Mold Breaker and Band work really well together. Sawk appreciates being able to revenge with CC and then stay in to CC some more without worrying about being revenged. Mold Breaker lends itself so well to the band set because of Pokemon carrying Sturdy and Levitate. Also, I like to kill of Shedinja with EQ or Ice Punch, but maybe that's just me. :3

Problem with Sawsbuck is that it can't defeat many of the physical walls in NU. Even Regirock is troublesome if it carries Drain Punch, and Gurdurr is a full stop. Another problem, Swellow and Jumpluff also stop Sawsbuck though they can't switch in on Double-Edge. If Sawsbuck runs Adamant to pack the power it wants to have, a variety of things is suddenly outspeeding it, and even worse, those all have, without exception, powerful super-effective attacks to stomp Sawsbuck hard. Sawk is by far the most common, but Zangoose, Pikachu, and Leavanny are in the same boat.

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You should always run Jolly>Adamant on an SD set. With LO+SD boost, you won't really be missing out on that extra Attack. And everything has its checks and counters. You shouldn't be setting up with Sawsbuck if you know it is going to be revenged with great ease.

On the great Wartortle debate of 2013:
I have run Wartortle more than once, and it handles itself just fine. Personally, I ran Scald/Seismic Toss/Rapid Spin/Toxic. Seismic Toss can break subs, so you don't have to worry too much about opposing Pokemon trying to set up on it. If you are REALLY paranoid about Pokes trying to come in and set up on it, run Haze. Problem solved. When I ran it on PO for a while as well because I wanted to use Shell Smash Crustle (which Crustle is still legal on PO in NU, even though a ban seems to be coming). I couldn't afford to have hazards up because I really needed Crustle to maintain its Sturdy when it came it. I didn't feel comfortable running a spinner weak to rocks for this reason. I posted an RMT on PO, and everyone recommended I ran Torkoal or Armaldo. I tried both, and neither worked as consistently as Wartortle. Overall, I feel like it's an inferior spinner in most cases, but sometimes you really need a spinner that is not weak to rocks.

Oh, yeah, also, looking at the RU Stats, it seems we're about to get Munchlax, Hariyama, and Scolipede, and maybe if we're lucky, Klinklang. Hariyama and Scolipede are lowest than the cut point, already, and Munchlanx and Klinklang are so near (about 10 uses less, and they're lowest the cut point).

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I'd be fine with Hariyama and to an extent Klinklang. But I reaaaallly don't want Scolipede (which will undoubtedly become the best spikes stacker in NU) or Munchlax (just because annoying). Actually, I would love to play with Hariyama. Bring it on!